NEWSLETTER
Well they certainly made it interesting.
Battling to the final horn, again, the Chicago Blackhawks fall 5-4 to the Florida Panthers in their third-to-last home game of the season and the regular season finale of the series between the teams this season. With the loss, Chicago falls to 2-4-2 on the season against the Panthers and will remain in sixth-place in the Central Division with 50 points. The Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars headed to overtime in their matchup tonight, with Nashville finding the winner and getting the win 1-0 and extending their lead over the Blackhawks to eight points in the standings.
FINAL: Panthers 5, #Blackhawks 4
Shot attempts: 81-55 FLA
Shots on goal: 42-35 FLA
5-on-5 scoring chances: 39-20 FLA
5-on-5 high danger chances: 14-12 FLA pic.twitter.com/5f1hkq8jIH— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) May 2, 2021
Chicago showed a lot of resilience in this one, having to come back from being down 2-0 and 5-2 at different points in this game. The problem is that they HAD to dip into that resilience to make this game competitive against as Panthers team that looks poised to make a ton of noise in the Stanley Cup playoffs coming up in about two weeks.
Bright spot: Adam Gaudette tallied a pair of assists tonight, making it a three-game point streak to begin his Blackhawks career with four points in those three games.
Bright spot: Chicago converted on two of their four powerplay opportunities after struggling on the man-advantage as of late.
Not-so-bright spot: Defensive breakdowns plagued the Blackhawks tonight and is just a continuation of a struggling defensive storyline throughout this entire season.
No-so-bright spot: Wyatt Kalynuk, usually reliable this season, was a minus-two with three giveaways tonight in one of his roughest performances of the season.
No-so-bright spot: Blackhawks allow three goals over a 1:34-minutes stretch of time between the end of the second period and beginning of the their period. That’s how you kill momentum fast.
I continue to be encouraged by the young players on the Blackhawks this season and I continue to be satisfied with the efforts being made in the final handful of games with the team still “alive” in the playoff chase. As long as the team doesn’t quit down the stretch, that’s all you can ask for at this point in the season.
Find the full box score here.
